A to Z
by TrainxEve-Fan12
Summary: Twenty-six drabbles on the subjects of life, love, and of course, milk.


**A/N: Hi guys! Sara here. I started this like…months ago. Maybe even a year, and just sorta worked on it on and off when I felt like it. It shouldn't have taken that long, in retrospect, because they're all so short. At some point I may post longer stories based on some of my favourite drabbles here as other chapters to this story, but I don't know when. There's a lotta TrainxEve in here, and I think one or two of ChardenxKyouko and some BelzexSephiria and some CreedxEchidna and CreedxSaya and JenosxRins, but…anyway. They're not **_**all**_** shipping, mind you. A little of both the anime and the manga plotlines, depending on what worked best for the story. Anyway. Please enjoy!**

**These will all be 100 words, excluding the 'title' thing-a-ma-jig.**

**A is for Aptitude.**

"You can become a Sweeper when you're fifteen."

Eve decided right then that she preferred aptitude over ability. The two words were similar, but, truthfully, they couldn't be more different. For example, she lacked the ability to become a Sweeper due to her young age… she couldn't change the rules, as much as she would have liked to. But she knew she had the aptitude – that was, the talent – to become a fearsome bounty hunter.

She also had two great teachers, and that certainly helped, too.

She smiled, although he didn't see it, up at Train and murmured quietly, "Thanks."

**B is for Bandaids.**

As often as they get hurt, keeping band-aids around is necessary. It isn't as though every cut or scrape required much more. But now she can't find any, and she'll be mortified if Train finds her bleeding from the head all because she'd been clumsy. She can hide the band-aid with her hair, but not bleeding.

And he _does _tease her when he finds her, holding a cloth to her forehead and sulking. But he doesn't tease her much, and, she realizes later, that it is his way of telling her not to be afraid to show her weaknesses sometimes.

**C is for Cats.**

"We aren't keeping it, Rins!"

"But Jenoooos~! I found it all alone, mewling pitifully!" As though to prove her point, the small kitten mewled – it _was_ quite pathetic.

"Rins, you know I hate—" But she was done being sweet now, and her eyes took on a murderous glint, and the look on her face told clearly, 'I am getting what I want, so just shut the fuck up and deal with it.' He could count the amount of times he had won arguments with her when she had such an expression on her face on one hand.

"…Fine."

"YAY!"

**D is for Dogs.**

"A dog? Really? Dogs and cats do not get along, Rins."

"My precious little Rex would never do anything hurt my precious Flora, dahrrrling." She giggled, as though in on a private joke, and Jenos groaned as she set the dog down.

"Why would you get a dog a week after the cat?"

"I found it all alone…"

"Mewling pitifully?"

"Howling, actually."

They turned their heads at the same time at the sound of a loud purr to the odd sight of the dog laying on the floor and the cat snuggling into the dog's stomach.

"Well then…"

"Told ya."

**E is for Emergency.**

Sven leaves the hospital at around nine. It isn't until he does that Eve pulls a chair next to the unconscious figure on the hospital bed and, clutching his hand, murmurs softly, "You idiot, stop getting yourself hurt all the time…you're such an idiot…making me worry about you…you idiot…" and she's not aware she's crying until dark spots appear on his clothes and a voice says,

"Awww, Princess, I'm no good at dealing with crying women…"

And she'd be mortified if she didn't know that he's too drugged up to remember this later, and so she just cries some more.

**F is for Fences**

It is really quite impressive what Sven can jump when chasing the fool who has dared to steal his surrogate daughter's first kiss.

The fact that said fool is Train probably only makes him run faster. Train yelling, unrepentant, "Come and catch me, Sven-daddy~~!" has almost certainly not helped matters, either.

But back to the point. Currently, Sven has jumped two dogs, a kid in a stroller, a hissing cat, and a fence easily as tall as he is, all without a hitch. Eve and Tearju are beginning to wonder if he should have gone into the gymnastics instead Sweeping.

**G is for Games.**

Princess hadn't ever been particularly fond of games, and Train couldn't figure out why for the life of him. It seemed like something she'd like – a chance to prove her physical and mental strength. But she usually refused to play.

One night he asked her why. She looked down at her hands and murmured, "Because when I lived with Torneo, I felt like a game piece he used as he pleased, like I had no purpose except to make sure he won." She clenched her teeth.

Train said nothing, merely wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer

**H is for Happiness.**

Creed enjoyed precious little happiness or joy in his life. He found some thanks to Echidna, but it was always a tainted sort of happiness. He was weighed down with guilt for many things…his ignorance of Echidna's feelings for him when he himself knew all too well what it felt like to be left unacknowledged by one you loved, his harming of Train and his partners, Sven and Eve, trying to plunge the world into chaos, attempting to become God…but mostly for the murder of a beautiful woman in a floral yukata late one starry night at a fireworks festival.

**I is for Improvisation.**

Eve, for all her books and logic, was impressively good at improvising. She proved as much now, slamming a hair-hammer into a target's head before he could shock her again with tao he wasn't supposed to have. She was about to speak when she fell immediately to the ground.

"I'm…I'm fine. I think it's just some leftover shocks," she gasped as Train and Sven knelt next to her.

Train, to test that theory, kissed her abruptly on the lips. Her felt a gentle tao- shock, and then sparks that weren't electricity.

As it just so happens, Train can improvise, too.

**J is for Justice.**

Although some call Sweepers people of justice, that definition fits none of them, not Train, Eve or Sven, who'd release a target and show him mercy if only he changed his ways. For those who're merciful, justice is not a positive thing, but often a negative one. A way to justify killing the man who wrote a challenge on the wall in your friend's blood, a way to justify killing the man who murdered your first true love – justice. It's what they deserve, justice argues. It's what they need, mercy retorts. And although it was hellishly hard, they chose mercy.

**K is for Killer.**

She was trying to get the bell around his neck, make him into a good cat, but he was fighting her. She almost had it, almost had her fingers around his neck to tie it when he pushed her away, harder than before, and threw the bell out the window. "You're a killer just like me."

And she ran. _No, no, he's wrong, I'm not a killer, not anymore,_ she wouldn't be a killer anymore. But maybe she deserved that bell as much as he did. Maybe she deserved it more. Not the bell, a noose, she deserved a noose...

**L is for Luck.**

Sven was unlucky to lose his closest friend and partner one night due to a careless mistake. He was unlucky to have to watch the man die; he was unlucky to have to live knowing that his eye wasn't his.

Eve was unlucky to have never known happiness or mercy or kindness or real love. She was unlucky to be forced to kill over and over _and over_ – She was unlucky to have nightmares filled with screams and agony.

Ironically, the thing that made all this unluck bearable was supposedly the most unlucky thing of all – a certain Black Cat.

**M is for Money.**

"We need money. Get off your lazy ass and stop eating all of our food!" Sven half yells and half growls. Train doesn't listen because being poor has never seriously impeded them before and he cares very little for living with constraints on what he can and can't do.

That's until the night they're forced to sleep on the streets.

The sight of Eve, shivering and huddled in a ball in between her older guardians in restless sleep breaks Train's heart, because he promised the princess he'd protect her, dammit, and he starts taking money only a little more seriously.

**O is for Opehlia. ***

She'll have her Hamlet, one way or another.

She's willing to lie howling in hell if that's what's needed to be loved, she will wear her hair down and dress in white if it means he will finally _see her_. She will die just as the maiden did.

He finds her cadaver in the still brook, emerald hair shimmering brightly as her too-pale face floats just barely above the water, flushed lips parted as though to kiss, flowers in her slender fingers. And he mourns the loss of one who loved him because he was chasing one who did not.

**P is for Pressure.**

"Come on, Jenos!" Rinslet's hands pressing rhythmically into his abdomen. "Please!"

"Miss Walker…" A voice that was hesitant, an odd flavoring for this normally confident woman.

"Shut up!" Screaming at her, holding his nose as she breathes into his mouth. His chest rises with artificial breath, but he doesn't return her desperate kiss.

"Miss Walker!" A voice that is firmer now, blue eyes pitying. "_He's been dead for more than an hour!_"

Rinslet had been told earlier with gentle words, and she'd pretended they were lies. But now…she is forced to accept reality. She turns her head upwards and screams.

**Q is for Quintessential. **

Flowing blonde hair, sapphire eyes, a kind smile. Delicate shoulders, perfect breasts, concave belly, flaring hips, long legs … she is the model woman. She is the kind of woman men fear but also want. The type who can put anyone at ease with but a smile. She is the type who seems perfectly peaceful even when she is anything but.

She is beautiful.

Belze reflects on these facts as he watches her kill an enemy with all the grace and beauty of a ballet dancer, and decides that if he had his way, she wouldn't be tainted with killing.

**R is for Responsibility. **

Kyouko had a responsibility to protect him. To be with him. To never let him be lonely. It wasn't a responsibility she resented or one that had been forced on her. Although she hated being depended on or having liability, she didn't mind if it was him. After all, he took care of her and made her feel safe around people who made her feel the opposite. She knew she had to protect him, return the favor.

So when the battle's over, she finds him, and she tells him about responsibility. And he nods and she knows he's the same.

**S is for Skeleton.**

He counts the cadavers. Hers is hard to miss, her hair shining like a halo. And yet he doesn't see it until he's right upon it, sees the crimson splattered across what's left. Her bleached bones are visible. Her mouth is wide open, like her eyes. He turns away to be sick, but hears a small sound.

"…'lease…"

He turns around, horrified. He finds that her mouth is moving. Just barely moving. Her wide eyes are on him. Just on him. Begging.

Princess's alive…

"pl…e…please…"

And in so much pain.

He takes his gun and shoots her. One of them screams.

**T is for Time.**

It's been ten years since Sven and Train met, five years since Eve joined them. In that time they have grown closer. They mesh together effortlessly in a manner only those who're very close can.

Of course, years of being together had also led to arguing, and they knew how to annoy each other. Like now, with Train shoving Eve's books into the bookshelf roughly just because he knows it'll aggravate her. She returns the favor by chucking his milk far, far out the window.

Sven just smiles as he watches them. For he knows that neither could be happier.

**U is for Unecessary. **

Princess likely didn't know it, but there was flair to her style. For example, their last marks. She could have easily snuck up on them and then stabbed their car with her lance. She didn't have to stand in the road, eyes hidden by her hair, and transform in front of them. Her style was chic, without appearing overdone. She made Sweeping into a fashion.

Not that Train minded. It was a pleasant break from her critical attitude. She didn't care for theatrics and was straightforward in everything. Her sweeping, slightly fantastic, made her a mystery, and he loved it.

**V is for Venus. ****

Venus and Aphrodite were exactly the same, Eve thought as she read a book on mythology.

"I know what that's like," she murmured.

She wondered if they felt that way – like copies. Like they didn't exist as anything but the extension of another. Eve hated feeling that. She loved Tearju…but it hurt. Just looking at her hurt. Eve wasn't Eve at all. She was just…another Tearju.

"Princess," Train called, sticking his head in her bedroom door. "We're going to catch our bounty!"

Eve smiled softly. To Train, she may have been Princess, but at the very least she was herself.

**W is for Waterworks.**

Eve's valedictorian speech was lasting a bit longer than Train liked. It was _boring, _actually. Rinslet and Sven sat at his sides, sniffling. Train huffed, irritated.

Eve paused. She took a deep breath, and started speaking again.

"But _I _want to thank the person who was a rival to me. He never stopped driving me forward. He…inspired me to push past the limitations others set. To be better than they thought I could be." She paused and said, choking back tears, "Better than _I _thought I could be."

"Hyprocrite," Rinslet murmured as a tear slipped down Train's cheek.

"Shut up."

**X is for Xeric.**

She licked her lips. They were dry. No, xeric. It was a word she'd only recently learned; it meant "lacking moisture." She nodded. It was the perfect word for right now.

She glanced out the window, bluish moonlight spilling in. He cheek ached acutely. She was alone, and the men who tried to save her were dead. She had killed them.

Yes, she thought as she licked her lips again. She was xeric. She couldn't cry, she couldn't _feel_…she was dry, numb.

Torneo saw this, and he grinned wickedly. No doubt now she'd be a better weapon now than ever.

**Y is for Yours.**

"Princess, you're your own master. You know that, right?"

Eve nods, not looking up from her book.

"Alright. Good." He pauses, then speaks again. "But that doesn't mean you can't give a part of yourself to other people, if you want."

She nods again, clearly fighting a smile. He asks, mock-offended, "What's so funny?"

"You're so funny when you try to flirt!" she says, then laughs, and he grins stupidly because he made Princess laugh, and God knows how hard that is. He would certainly keep trying, so long as she just let him have a little bit of her.

**Z is for Zygology.**

He walks past a train station, milk bottle in hand.

She twirls her light hair in her fingers and can't decide if she likes it short or not.

He blows smoke out of his mouth as he walks down the street, humming to himself.

She snaps the whip against a man as she runs from the mansion with a gold necklace.

And all of their friends, although they are all miles away from each other, are all connected by an unbreakable bond.

She smiles softly at the picture in the frame.

Yes, they are all, and will always be, connected.

E/N:

*Ophelia is a character from Shakespeare's Hamlet who goes mad and dies (it's implied she committed suicide) and who was Hamlet's love interest in the story.

**The gods Venus and Aphrodite are one in the same – Roman and Greek varieties.


End file.
